Welcome Our Board Members

Mr.HiroshiAyuha, President of SELP

On behalf of the Japan Social Employment Council SELP), I am delighted to serve as one of the board members of Workability Asia. SELP is a member of Workability Japan which networks with 3 other organizations on disability and employment in Japan as well, namely KYOSAREN (Japan Association of Community Workshops for Disabled Persons), NPO Japan SELP Center and ZENCOLO.
In cooperation with their own members in all over Japan, SELP and other 3 organizations aim to raise awareness about work and employment of persons with disabilities, secure their income, participate in its policy-making process of issues related to work and employment of persons with disabilities at all levels, and research about persons with disabilities and workability. We hope to strengthen our networking and collaboration through the framework of Workability Asia. It is important and essential for us to learn more about the mentioned topics in the era of globalization in which diversity can be one key. It is expected that Workability Asia as one platform can accelerate our international communication and networking in a sustainable manner.

Mr.SIU Yu Hong Hetzer, CEO and National Director of MSO

In 2012, Macau Special Olympics joined in Workability as one of the members and, 7 years later, it’s my honour to be the Board of Workability Asia and make contributions to employment for people with disabilities.
Macau Special Olympics (MSO) is a non-profit organization in Macau with the missions of developing “Whole Body” concept for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) through providing sports training, community care, special education and vocational rehabilitation service.
Being a social worker and working at MSO over 15 years, I have to admit that serving people with ID is not an easy job because there’s no standard or one common training tool that is suitable for every user.
Despite facing challenges and restrictions, vocational rehabilitation training is one of our important pillars in our services. Since 1995, MSO started to provide vocational rehabilitation training to our users and, afterwards, set up two social enterprises on cleaning services to support employment of people with ID. To facilitate the changes of working environment in Macau, in addition to traditional cleaning or assembling jobs, we also offer extra skillful trainings, such housekeeping, baking and arts workshop, to our users.
Being the new Board of Workability Asia, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to host 2019 WASIA Conference in Macau with the theme of “Promote Corporate Social Responsibility: Increase Social Awareness on Employment of People with Disabilities”. I am looking forward to meeting all the stakeholders and get inspired to build a better working environment for people with disabilities

Ms.Florence Chan began her entrepreneurial journey in 2009. She took over the bakery training bay of the rehabilitation complex under Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and turned it into a bakery social enterprise achieving both business and social missions. iBakery, a bakery and catering business employing people with disabilities, was founded in 2010. With continuous expansion in the past years, it has become a reputable and award winning social enterprise with 11 shop outlets operated by a team of 110 staff members consisting of different abilities. Apart form creating employment for people with disabilities, Florence also built a strong network of volunteers with passion and expertise supporting the development of iBakery, and took part in community education by promoting social enterprise and social inclusion to thousands of local and overseas visitors.
“This is my great honor to be elected as one of the directors this year. I have been focusing on creation of job opportunities for people with disabilities for more than 10 years by operating sustainable social business in Hong Kong. We still have a long way to go for achieving an inclusive society but I will do my best
(1) To strengthen our participation by recruiting more members from Hong Kong and
(2) To facilitate the exchanges of experience and good practices among members from different parts of the region, during my terms of service in the Workability Asia family.
Thank you once again for the nomination and your trust. ”